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my winter bike is a hongfu chinese jobby and i have just clicked 'buy' on this:-

no idea when it might turn up (slightly concerning that the seller has only been active since july), but for GBP63.00 i thought it was worth a punt (through ebay via paypal should give me some element of protection over whether it arrives or not).

i have no qualms about chinese frames (i have one) or chinese wheels (i'm on the cusp of ordering some farsports 50mm carbon clinchers), but very little seems to be written about their bars & stems.

I think they look fine . You will get more of an idea when they arrive but weight wise there the same as all the other intergrated bars . Keep us posted on how they work out .I don't think you will die but If you do die could you somehow do a ghost post so we know it was the bars that led to your death and could you give us some after life info .

I didn't get the integrated ones but i've had chinese carbon bars before. They might be a tad flexy but for what you pay they are amazing. I've crashed mine on several occasions, once side swiped by a car and they are still goin strong.

good questionSooner or later we are all going to die. So why not after trying a component from China for which some people write foolish comments on bike forums and then disappear.Look into "toshi" s suicide comments below. Despite the fact that this guy was asked by an other member and me from which eBay member he bought these he simply disappeared in the dephts of the internet.All we know is that these are no name wheels of course from China and many members are going to die soon. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=100162&start=195" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i have no qualms about chinese frames (i have one) or chinese wheels (i'm on the cusp of ordering some farsports 50mm carbon clinchers), but very little seems to be written about their bars & stems

It matters not whether it's chinese or not, but whether it is manufactured properly. A good proportion of the parts you buy may well be manufactured in China. If it has a brand then that company has chosen to put their name to that part and you expect a certain level of manufacture given that brand name. If it has no brand then you are using a part that may or may not be manufactured better than branded parts but you can be certain that the seller doesn't consider a brand important. Make of that what you will. It then comes down to whether or not you can have faith in where you have bought it from. I'd rather buy something that has a brand as someone is hopefully taking responsibility for that part if my life depends on it. If it's a pair of shoes, I couldn't care less. If it's the brakes on my car, it's hugely important. Bar/stem combo.....personally, I'd rather pay the extra for a branded item, but I've never been much of a risk taker!

Talking Chinese made carbon fiber components .Having a brand name on an item does neither guarantee a proper manufactured product nor that you can follow up and find them.Many,many brands are around and most of them at least claim to use T700 .As you may have noticed these combo stem bars have weights above 360 gr and have alloy carbon fiber wrapped stems with an alloy plate inserting into the handle bar part.Brands like Kiger ,Ness,Climax ,EMX,PZ Racing,Ciasta and more are on the market and you pay STG.89.99 for a branded stem/bar (Kiger) .But not 400.Trend is that more and more cyclists do and will not follow the marketing hype and the claimed "expertise" of mostly European and US brands.

Having a brand name isn't a guarantee, but having a known and well established brand name does mean that hopefully certain criteria have been met in developing the part and therefore I would place more confidence in the product. If I was buying handlebars, I would choose a known brand such as USE, Deda, Easton or others rather than one that I've never heard of.

I disagree with you about the trend and marketing hype. The absolute only reason why people consider no name parts is cost, the parts are generally cheap. In reality, if the no name parts were the same price as branded parts, people would buy the branded parts. European and US brands, in general, do have expertise, not claimed expertise as you suggest. In fact many far eastern companies employ western engineers in product and production line development. In my experience, plus from all the products I've seen, no name companies copy parts but I don't think I've ever seen a new development come from one of them?

Disagree in every single point.But I do stop the discussion because it is running into a this against that discussion.Except your last sentence including a question You cannot know a source of a new development because there is no name on it. Further do not need to list the number of western companies who copy a part because some competitor has it.Cyclists around the world trust the expertise of Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers. It is not only a price tag decision.It will be splitting of hairs how the expertise got there.The huge amount of Asian scientists involved in the development of new manufacturing technologies and composite materials in the world and published thesis does keep at least me away from claiming that expertise happens in the west whereas far east companies do import scientists and know how.That is simply false.

I'm fairly certain you'd have better luck claiming from an established brand, who's presence in the market place signifies they've passed safety certification, if a part did fail than some middle man on eBay.

I believe these parts are well engineered. In many cases they're using the same design as branded parts, it just there's no trust in the chain of custody. For all we know these many of these parts could come from b-stock rejected by the brand, or from lines who's production and QC wasn't up to standard? I'm not saying it is the case, but buying from an anonymous seller can make you certain of nothing.

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